2024-04-11 19:41:31
– A brutal awakening for parents of teenagers
The parents of a gunman in Michigan are being sentenced as if they themselves had carried out the crime. The judgments push the boundaries of responsibility. Where will this end?
Published: April 11, 2024, 9:41 p.m
Jennifer Crumbley arrives in the courtroom in prison uniform for the sentence to be announced. Her son Ethan Crumbley shot four classmates in 2021.
Photo: Carlos Osorio (AP)
Here you will find additional external content. If you agree that cookies are set by external providers and personal data is thereby transmitted to external providers, you can allow all cookies and display external content directly.
Allow cookiesMore information
For Jennifer and James Crumbley, one of American parents’ worst nightmares has become a reality. Her son Ethan shot two male and female classmates on November 30, 2021. He was 15 years old. Now Jennifer and James Crumbley have each been sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
These are historic judgments for the USA. For the first time, the parents of an underage school shooter were convicted as if they had been accomplices. One of the principles of criminal law is that you are only responsible for acts that you have committed yourself. When imposing the sentence, the judge emphasized that this case was not about whether the parents were just negligent, about “poor parenting,” as she called it. It was about the Crumbleys repeatedly ignoring signs that a crime was brewing.
Far-reaching consequences for parents in the USA
The spectacular verdicts are likely to have far-reaching consequences for parents in the USA if they stand up in the appeal processes that have already been announced. They push the boundaries in answering a question that humanity has been grappling with for thousands of years. To what extent are parents responsible for what their children do?
The judgments against the Crumbleys are understandable. Michigan prosecutors had convinced two juries in two separate trials that both parents were guilty. The Crumbleys bought their son a gun and did not secure it. They also didn’t respond when the school summoned them because the son had drawn a gun and a bleeding figure between his math exercises and written, “Thoughts don’t stop,” “Help me,” “Blood everywhere.” A few hours later, Ethan Crumbley started shooting.
However, preventing such tragedies in the future requires more than harsh sentences against parents. A whole range of measures is necessary: trained teachers and supervisors, sufficient intervention and therapy options, stringent regulations for the security of firearms, a culture of looking. In Michigan, for example, weapons in households with minors must be stored with a trigger lock and separated from ammunition. But only since Ethan Crumbley shot four other teenagers.
The verdict has an impact far beyond the individual case
After the Crumbleys’ verdict, it is foreseeable that American prosecutors will try to prosecute other parents for their children’s crimes, even if the initial situation is less clear. In the US legal system, a judgment has an impact far beyond the individual case because it can be used as a precedent in further proceedings. It is still difficult to estimate where the boundaries of parental responsibility will one day be drawn.
It is expected that parents will be pressured to make a deal with prosecutors and plead guilty without a trial to get away with a reduced sentence. Where will this end? Are parents guilty if their teenager steals a bottle of vodka and drunkenly causes a car accident? What if the child stabs you with a knife from the kitchen drawer?
Excesses affect those who are already disadvantaged
A social problem cannot be solved with criminal law alone. In the USA, local authorities have tried this again and again, for example with buses for parents of children who engage in bullying. Penalties for parents of truants are particularly controversial. Vice President Kamala Harris made a career of it when she was attorney general and prosecutor of San Francisco and California. The excesses are known. Cheree Peoples, for example, was taken away in handcuffs by police because her daughter had missed too many days of school due to a chronic illness. Peoples is African-American, like so many parents to whom such punitive articles are applied excessively and harshly.
There is a lack of evidence that parents become better educators and their children commit fewer crimes if the parents are threatened with a fine or prison. In any case, the cause of juvenile crime in the USA cannot only be found in education. Crime increases where adult social problems, such as drug use and violence, are concentrated. Where schools are poor, so is the supply of healthy food and access to treatment for mental illness. Where the United States is not the land of opportunity.
Schoolchildren are already preparing against school shootings
Here you will find additional external content. If you agree that cookies are set by external providers and personal data is thereby transmitted to external providers, you can allow all cookies and display external content directly.
Allow cookiesMore information
Here you will find additional external content. If you agree that cookies are set by external providers and personal data is thereby transmitted to external providers, you can allow all cookies and display external content directly.
Allow cookiesMore information
July 15th to 18th: The Republican delegates meet in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At the party conference, both the Republican presidential candidate and the vice presidential candidate are officially elected by the delegates, the election program is adopted and the campaign for the general election is initiated.
August 19th to 22nd: The Democrats meet in Chicago, Illinois. It is also about closing ranks behind the candidate duo Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
2. September: The hot phase of the election campaign begins with Labor Day. The highlights are traditionally the four TV debates, three between the presidential candidates and one between the vice presidents. Whether they will also take place this year is the subject of eager speculation. For now, however, the following TV duels are planned:
-
16. September: First TV debate between the presidential candidates in San Marcos, Texas
-
25. September: TV debate between the vice candidates in Easton, Pennsylvania
-
October 1: Second TV debate between the presidential candidates in Petersburg, Virginia
-
9. October: Third TV debate between the presidential candidates in Salt Lake City, Utah
5. November: Election Day. A total of 538 electoral votes are up for grabs, and whoever gets 270 of them is President of the United States. In addition to the president, all 435 representatives in the House of Representatives and 34 senators, a third of the US Senate, are elected. There are also gubernatorial elections taking place in various states.
You can find our collected coverage of the US elections here.
Fabian Fellmann has been writing about political issues for more than 20 years. Since summer 2021, the political scientist has been reporting as a USA correspondent from Washington, DC. Before that, he worked as a Brussels and Bundeshaus correspondent for various newspaper editorial teams. More information@fabian_fellmann
Found an error? Report now.
34 comments
1712890162
#USA #Shooting #spree #Judgments #brutal #awakening #parents